Front-Line Troops Offer Help

Preventing colds and flu sometimes seems to be our sole mission this time of year. So we went to three people in the trenches--a school nurse, a flight attendant and a father--and asked them to weigh in on how to avoid spreading the latest bug.

The School Nurse

Marilyn Ashwell, director of health services, Saddleback Valley Unified School District

Marilyn Ashwell is a registered nurse for Orange County’s fourth-largest school district, and in her 20 years as an RN, she has seen at least 20 cycles of colds and flu--the spread of which could have been prevented in many cases.

The easiest way to slow down the transmission of cold and flu is to keep children home when they’re initially sick, she said.

Ashwell understands the pressures that working parents feel to not miss a workday themselves, but, she says, “If they didn’t get that extra day, they’re going to miss three days,” she said.

And soon, three or four or five more children will get the bug.

A classroom is

a confined area with sneezing, coughing children passing papers, sometimes sharing foods, but the most vulnerable person is usually the newest teacher. “A new teacher is exposed to all new little germs their system is not ready for,” Ashwell said.

She puts on a health lesson during new-teacher orientation every year.

Teachers today are taught the universal health precautions to prevent the spread of AIDS, but Ashwell emphasizes that the old-fashioned precautions to prevent the spread of colds and flu are just as important--using a tissue when you sneeze, keeping your hands off your mouth, “and hand-washing, hand-washing, hand-washing. It cannot be stressed enough.”

All of this is common sense, but Ashwell said that when a teacher has only a few extra minutes in the schedule, he or she may wonder, “Can I take five minutes to wash my hands?”

And schoolchildren tend to follow their teacher’s example.

The rest is simple, good health practices--lots of rest, three good meals a day, plenty of fluids. “That sounds so basic,” Ashwell said, but lots of children are going to bed too late and eating doughnuts for breakfast--if they eat breakfast at all.

“I think it’s very hard to be a working parent these days and keep these wonderful traditions alive.”

The Flight Attendant

Susan Irick-Hacker

An airplane is a big, sealed tube with hundreds of people exchanging countless germs, all floating about in recycled air. Flight attendants have learned how to battle the long hours in this environment, staying healthy and rested even through the several time zones they may cross in a week.

Susan Irick-Hacker, flight attendant and author of “Plain Tips for Plane Trips” (R&E; Publishers, 1993), works the United Airlines round-trip from Washington’s Dulles Airport to Brussels every week.

Flight attendants already tend to be health-conscious, she said. With the mandatory weight and age rules of the not-so-distant past, they are also a fairly trim and young group.

To stay healthy, most know to get the right amount of sleep, drink lots of fluids, take vitamins and exercise.

And they know their environment, which Irick-Hacker described as a cabin pressurized to 5,000 feet, with about 5% humidity in the air. So if you are drinking alcohol, you tend to get drunk faster.

“Drink lots of water, that’s No. 1 and don’t drink [alcohol],” said Irick-Hacker, adding that alcohol tends to dehydrate already-dry passengers.

Two recent changes have helped keep flight attendants even healthier--learning the universal health precautions and the no-smoking laws, Irick-Hacker said. Attendants are used to dealing with all sorts of passengers: “If he’s drunk, maybe you can do something about it. If they’re sick, maybe you’re more careful around them. If they’re throwing up, then you definitely put your gloves on. These are things we didn’t used to do.”

Some flight attendants use gloves even when serving food, but Irick-Hacker thinks that’s a little extreme.

Her most important piece of advice for travelers: “A passenger shouldn’t fly sick, especially with a sinus problem--you can do permanent damage to your ears.”

Children especially shouldn’t fly ill. “Any doctor will tell [parents] that,” Irick-Hacker said. Children’s eardrums aren’t as developed as adults’, “and they don’t know how to pop their ears.”

During take-off or landing, “Infants should suck on a bottle or a pacifier and let them cry. That will pop their ears,” she said. This accounts for the chorus of screaming babies on landing.

The Parent

Rich Warren

For several years, Rich Warren, 45, a divorced father from Calabasas, has successfully used a mix of medical sense and folk remedies to ward off germs for his two daughters, Beth, 18, and Danielle, who turns 14 this week.

Getting the right amount of sleep is most important in preventing illness, Warren advised. “Especially with my older daughter. She gets sick when she gets rundown.”

Second, make sure they eat the right kinds of food, including fruits containing vitamin C. And yes, he serves lots of homemade chicken soup when his kids are sick.

The freelance screenwriter and former composer for television shows such as “Dallas” and “Remington Steele,” likes to play it safe.

“Even though the latest wisdom says it’s not true,” Warren makes sure his daughters dress warmly in the cold and rain.

“I used to be a marathon runner. I know if you keep the upper body warm and it’s 30 degrees, 40 degrees out, you could wear shorts,” Warren said.

He also keeps the humidity level high in the house.

Most of the prevention is natural. Aside from the regular vaccinations, Warren doesn’t believe in flu shots for his daughters. “I didn’t like giving them extra stuff. I think their bodies are strong enough.”

His advice for parents of younger children? It’s almost impossible to keep them away from their sick friends, so teach them not to drink from the same cup or use the same towel.

He tries to follow the same regimen as his daughters, but gets a lot more exercise than they do. Still, he said, he does get sick when his daughters do. “I probably don’t watch it as much as I should. I’m too busy taking care of them.”

His daughters each get one or two colds a year, Warren said. “They seem to get through it a lot quicker than I do. It’s probably because they’re a little more at my mercy, so they have to rest. They have to eat when I tell them to.”